STAR
WARS – EPISODE II – ATTACK OF THE CLONES

Director:George
Lucas

Starring:Ewan
McGregor, Samuel L. Jackson, Natalie Portman

WARNING: This review contains
spoilers!

It’s
impossible not to be overwhelmed the first time you see Attack of the
Clones: the film is a dizzying whirl, whisking viewers from planet to
planet, bombarding the senses with sumptuous visual detail, breathtaking
visual effects, and all-enveloping soundscapes. It makes it difficult to
see past the glossy surface, and find the story beneath. The film works
better on subsequent viewings, where it’s easier to pay attention to the
developing romance, the political plotting, and the echoes from past and
future adventures. It’s also a very different experience seeing the film
at home on video than it is seeing it in a theatre. Some special effects
that were unconvincing on the cinema screen fare better cut down to a
fraction of their original size. (Interestingly, on the commentary track
George Lucas acknowledges that many shots contain too much detail for the
viewer to process, comparing the use of these very dense shots (in this
instance, the conveyor belt scene) to a “tone poem”). Other sequences
(Obi Wan and Anakin chasing the bounty hunter through the Metropolis-like
landscape of Coruscant, for example) have a less visceral impact at home,
simply because they no longer command as much of the viewer’s field of
vision.

DISC ONE

Attack
of the Clones was shot entirely on high-resolution digital video, and
has been transferred to disc without a celluloid intermediary step, and it
looks simply stunning. There’s no film grain, no dirt, scratches or any
signs of wear and tear at all. Many sequences feature a colour scheme that
is generally realistic and subdued, but these are often contrasted with
patches of intense colour (the garish adverts that contrast so starkly
against the drab greyness of Coruscant, and the blazing lightsabers in the
climactic duel sequence, for example) that are simply dazzling. George
Lucas discusses his use of colour in one of the documentaries on the
second disc, but by then you should have noticed that he has a great eye,
and knows how careful use of tone and colour can subtly alter the focus of
a shot, and the effect it can have on the overall feel of a scene. Detail
on the disc is exceptionally good: you can admire the skin textures on
aliens like Dexter Jettster and pick out individual raindrops hitting the
landing platform on Kimino! It’s also a transfer that copes incredibly
well with scenes that traditionally pose real problems for DVD
compressionists, like smoke and dust clouds.

There
are a few minor flaws –sometimes you don’t feel that you’re
extracting all the picture information that might be possible (a slight
uniformity on the sand dunes of Geonosis, for example). There’s also
some minor aliasing (jagged diagonal edges - on the blinds in Yoda’s
meditation chamber, for example), some fleeting moiré patterning (in the
sky as Anakin takes off on his speeder bike to rescue Schmi, for example),
but these are likely to vary from set-up to set-up, and aren’t very
distracting. There are occasional signs of excessive edge-enhancement
(something that The Phantom Menace disc was criticised for),
but it should only be apparent on large display devices.

The 5.1 Dolby Digital EX audio mix (at 448kbps) is
terrific, second only to the awesome power of The Lord of the Rings among
recently released blockbusters. There are several scenes with elaborate,
demonstration-quality audio, including some scenes featuring bass effects
that you will feel more than hear, even if you don’t have a subwoofer!
(Three scenes are particularly effective: the deep rumble as Amidala’s
Royal Cruiser lands on Coruscant; the sonic charge explosions in the
Geonosis asteroid field; and the penetrating roars of the arena beasts).
The disc is THX approved (naturally), and there’s a THX Optimiser
available to fine-tune your settings to get the most out of the disc.

The
disc’s elaborate animated menus are very similar to those used on The
Phantom Menace – the same font, the same sort of layout. As before,
there’s a random selection of different menus when you load the disc,
each one taking its theme from a different location. They're well-organised,
and it's easy to find anything you want to see or revisit. There are a
couple of disappointments in the presentation: Fox have opted to use
player-generated subtitles for the few scenes where aliens speak in their
native languages, and the layer change (placed between Slave 1 and Obi
Wan’s starfighter arriving at Geonosis) is a little awkward.

One point against the Region 2 disc is that
the BBFC has insisted on a one-second cut to remove a headbutt during the
fight between Obi-Wan and Jango Fett. As is now often the case, the BBFC
offered Fox the chance to release the disc uncut with a ‘12’
certificate, but the company opted to retain its theatrical ‘PG’
certificate by cutting the film. At the moment it is not known whether the
Australian version of the disc will be uncut. (The review discs were coded
for Region 2 only, suggesting that Region 4 will get their own version).
The Region 1 release will, of course, be uncut.

There
have been a number of small tweaks made to the film for the DVD, (in
addition to those in the film’s digital theatrical presentation, which
was itself different from the film prints, because they had be made some
time before the digital version was delivered!)
Some of these changes are discussed on the commentary track, (at one point Lucas
is astonished that the version of the film they’re watching as they
record the track includes the sparks he'd added to Jango Fett’s backpack
after he’s trampled by the reek only the day
before!) The differences are generally incidental – an additional line
or two here and there to develop a theme, or to clarify a particular point
for the benefit of the audience, or adding a nuance that almost
subliminally alters the subtext of a scene.

The film is supported by a commentary track by director
George Lucas, producer Rick McCallum, Sound Designer / ‘Film Editor’
Ben Burtt, ILM Animation Director Rob Coleman, Visual Effects Supervisors
Pablo Helman, John Knoll and Ben Snow. As with The Phantom Menace disc,
each contributor is identified by an on-screen subtitle whenever they’re
speaking, (an idea that really should be adopted for all discs with
commentaries by several contributors).

The only other feature on disc one is an Easter Egg: the
production credits [2’22”], which are interwoven with some nice
outtakes, which we won’t spoil for you here.

Unless
explicitly stated, DVD screen captures used in the reviews are for illustrative
purposes only, and are not intended to be accurate representations of the DVD
image. While
screen captures are generally in their correct aspect ratio, there will often
have been changes made to the resolution, contrast, hue and sharpness, to
optimise them for web display.